Thursday, December 14, 2006

Last weekend we had our holiday party for one of my knitting groups NYGK. During the party we had a Chinese gift exchange. I have no idea why they call it a Chinese gift exchange, but the basic idea is that you draw a number, take turns picking presents, open the present and you can steal from each other. I ended up stealing this yarn, which came with a lovely pattern as well.

I have discovered that mini socks are just as addicting as regular socks. This is the first time I have used double pointed needles and I'm glad I'm not intimidated by them anymore. I'm going to keep working on them until I run out of yarn. I still have to finish a pair of socks for hubby.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

I received some lovely items from my swap partner, Laura. She sent me some Jawoll sock yarn which I'm dying to use. She also sent me a pretty coffee cup set and some Starbuck coffee, which I'm going to have to break into tomorrow (I guess it's today actually). Thanks for Laura!

Sunday, December 03, 2006

I have had a very productive couple of days. I finished getting all my Christmas decorations up at home and I am almost done at work. I'm actually starting to get Christmas tree'd out (not sure if that's the proper way to phrase it). We are having a Festival of Wreaths for work on Thursday night so everybody is taking on at least one tree to decorate. I decided to go out and buy the stuff and make a Hello Kitty tree because I always wanted one. It's going to be hard to donate this one, but I feel good about the way it turned out.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Actually, I hate that when they call her that. Her being Lexie Fyfe, my favorite female wrestler. I took some pictures at one of the recent matches and was able to get a picture taken with her. The only thing that sucked about the evening was that Amy Love beat Lexie. You may be asking where does knitting fit in with this this? Well, I'll tell you - I knit before the matches and during intermission.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

I finally finished my first pair of socks. They turned out a little big. I'm going to try a size smaller needles for my next pair for my hubby. Speaking of needles. I noticed my Size 2 circulars are two different sizes. The Crystal Palace ones are 2.75 mm and the Addi's are 3.0 mm. I had to go out and buy another one to make a matching pair. I decided to go with another Addi.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

I have been thinking about joining a sock of the month club for some time, but have found that some of them are cost prohibitive. I didn't really want to fork over a big chunk of money at once, rather would like to do it on a monthly basis. I found just the thing through Joslyn's Fiber Farm. One of the girls from my Saturday morning knitting group has actually belonged to her shawl of the month club and highly recommended her. So I took the plunge and signed up last week. Low and behold, my first shipment arrived today. It is a lovely DK weight yarn. I will probably do this project farther down the line when I am more comfortable doing socks. But the pattern really doesn't seem too difficult. I will be converting it over to two circulars though because that is my preferred method of doing socks at this time. (I sound like I have a lot of sock experience don't I?) I'm only on my second sock! The link for Joslyn's is: http://www.joslynsfiberfarm.com/SockClub.htm

Sunday, November 05, 2006

I finished my first ever sock today. Well, almost, I have to graft the toe. It went so easily and it only took 1 1/2 weeks. I'll try and get somebody to take a picture of it for me tomorrow. I used Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles and it was so easy to understand. This is a good thing, because I signed up for a sock of the month club through Jocelyn's Fiber Farm.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

I had a blast on the Susie and Cindi World Tour 2006. I ended up knitting all over the place. Bok Sanctuary in Lake Wales, St. Augustine Lighthouse, Gator Farm in St. Augustine, Spanish Quarter in St. Augustine and a few other places I can't quite remember. I'll leave pictures to give you an idea

Saturday, October 21, 2006

The Tour starts today with the arrival of Susie from Minnesota. We plan on taking Central Florida by storm, appearing in various yarn shops, quilt shops, book stores and ghost tours. Watch for updates!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Yesterday I received my Hot Socks Swap package. This is the first time I did a swap on swap-bot, but so far so good. Andrea sent me some beautiful hand dyed yarn in a pink colorway, some dark chocolate, hazelnut coffee and a really cool key chain kit for mini socks that you can change out. I can't wait to make some mini socks! Thank you, Andrea!

Friday, September 22, 2006

I signed on to do a dish cloth swap for sxy-stylz.com and have picked a pattern that I've had for years and find I enjoy doing. I have a lot of cotton yarn left over from my flowered hat project from this summer so I had a cornucopia of choices. I decided to do it in a bright green even before I found out that was one of my swap partner's color choices. How cool is that?

My life has been absolutely crazy because we are in our busy time of the year at work. I have decided to work on only one or two projects at a time, so I am working diligently on Boobalicious from Big Girl Knits. I am doing it out of Simply Soft yarn which is heavier than the yarn it calls for. I am hoping to have it done in time to wear it when I sing the National Anthem at the SCW 8th Anniversary match. This is the second time I had this honor and I feel nervous as heck.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

The final part of my birthday present arrived today, two books from Amazon. I ordered Sensational Knitted Socks and Knitting on the Road. Now I have absolutely no excuse to turn out fabulous socks. I certainly have enough sock yarn. I am now in baby mode. I have a friend who is due any day and of course, I haven't made her anything yet. So, right now I have two baby sweaters going and I plan on making booties to go with them. I also managed to get my mixed texture scarf done. I just have to finish weaving the ends in. My web camera is taking really crappy pictures so I'm going to take pictures with disposable and then post them. It will take awhile, but what the heck, I'm patient. (Yeah, right!)

Here are pictures of the stash I bought with my birthday money. Now I just have to get my butt in gear and start knitting. I'm still waiting on a couple of books from Amazon - Sensational Knitted Socks and Knitting on the Road.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

My father in law says I am an obsessive knitter. I told him if the shoe fits. I went to the UCF football home opener tonight and I knitted during half time. I have started my first sock for the Red Sock KAL. I think I may have figured out how to get my web cam to work for taking pictures and will try and post some tomorrow. I have knitting meetings three days in a row. Whoo hoo!

Thursday, August 31, 2006

I finally finished my first cabled project. I did a scarf from One Skein. My digital camera is broken, but fortunately one of my co-workers was able to snap a picture. Another co-worker had on the perfect color shirt to go with it so I made her model it for me. I'm the goofy one on the left. Thanks to Jasmine and Cindy!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

We're in for a bumpy ride! Florida is waiting in anticipation to see what Ernesto is going to do. Hopefully, he will stay a tropical storm. His projected path looks too much like Charlie. Well, if I'm stuck at home for awhile, at least I have plenty of knitting to keep me busy. For my birthday last week, I had requested money or book store gift certificates. I got enough money to increase my yarn stash enough to make two more sweaters. I bought some King Tut cotton yarn in a light turquoise to make the pillar Shelf from the Little Box of Sweaters. I also purchased some Caron Simply Soft Shadows in Soft Merino to make the Boobalicious Tank from Big Girl Knits. The Little Box of Sweaters and Big Girl Knits are two of the books I purchased. I also purchased Sensational Knitted Socks and another book from Amazon that I can't remember the name of. I have order some sock yarn from the Simply Socks Yarn company in a red jacquard for the Red Socks Knit Along. Unfortunately, I don't have a digital camera at this time to post pictures so I took them the old fashion way, with a disposable camera and I'm getting them put on disk so it will probably be a few more days until I have some pictures.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

I had a great birthday surpise yesterday, I receive my package from pal. She sent me some lovely wool yarns in blues, some stitch markers (which I have really been wanting), a cute pair of flip flop floating candles and another country berry votive candle. My digital camera has died so I am unable to post pictures. Thank you so much to my pal, even though she hasn't told me who she is. I'm thinking a felted tote is in my future.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

I really, truly, love dealing with Carla at Chez Casuelle, both in person and on eBay. I feel blessed that she is only 32 miles away as well. I also peruse the site to see what she has on sale and what is on eBay. I won a bid on some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn. (I was so drooling over it.) I had planned on going there to pick up some presents for my Favorite Color Swap SP and having won the auction was an added bonus. I contacted Carla to see if I could go ahead and pay for my auction and pick it up in person. No problem! I ended up buying the lovely Shepherd Sock in the Lakeview colorway as well as some Artisan Merino Laceweight in some lovely green and gold colorway. This was the original reason I went up there in the first place because it was at a killer price. I'm not going to state what I bought for my SP, but I think she's going to be happy.

More exciting news - I FINISHED MY JEWELED SHELL AND IT FITS!!!! I will post a picture once I get one taken. This is the first clothing garment I have ever made and I am so happy with the yarn I used. It is a Peruvian pima cotton/angora blend by Arcadia which has a lovely feel to it.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

I don't think so. I currently have signed on with five different knitting groups. I have physically attended all but one group's meetings. This week four of them met. I made it to meetings three days in a row. I would have gone to the fourth meeting today, but I was just too tired. I have been very productive lately with my projects and hope to finish my Jewelled shell soon. I did have to rip out 50 rows on the left front because I didn't read through the directions thoroughly and managed to complete the left front without doing the decreases on the inside edge. The frogging was done relatively easily and I should be caught up again tomorrow. I was a little frustrated with myself for making this mistake so decided to go against my rule and start another project. I cast on one of my scarves for the Think Pink Challenge. I decided to do an Irish hiking scarf with cables. It was my first attempt at doing cables and I must admit it was darn easy. I now have visions of doing Irish hiking scarves for all my friends and family back in Minnesota. Whether I actually do it, we shall see.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

I consider myself a lucky girl because I have a husband that doesn't mind going into knitting shops with me. I took Friday off as a day of vacation. I asked hubby if he minded going around with me while I did my errands. I told him I'd take him to breakfast, so he was game to go. First I went and got my quarterly blood work done, then I took him to breakfast. We then proceeded to go to Knit! in Longwood, Sip and Knit in Maitland and Michael's. After I dropped him off so he could go to work I ended up at AC Moore. I also hit another yarn shop in Winter Haven on my way to a wrestling match on Saturday. All in all I ended up getting four balls of some yellow cotton yarn, a ball of teal Pandora (love that stuff), some ribbon yarn, two balls of micro spun and two more sets of knitting needles. I'm still trying to get some of my current WIP's done. I'm almost done with my Jewelled shell, but I ended up casting on another multi-texture scarf for a birthday present, which should probably only take a few days to make. After I finish my Jewelled shell I'm going to start a baby cardigan with the yellow cotton yarn I purchased.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Favorite Color Swap Questionnaire1. What are your top three favorite colors? Blue, Purple, Teal and Hot Pink2. What crafts do you really enjoy? Knitting, Crocheting, Quilting3. What products do you really covet? Yarn Harlot Knitting Books, Addi Turbo Circular Needles4. What other activities do you enjoy besides your favorite crafty things? Wrestling, Karaoke, Reading5. Is there anything you collect? UFOs (lol) Hello Kitty, anything horsey, hinged boxes6. What is your zodiac sign and/or Chinese zodiac symbol? Virgo and Rabbit7.What are your favorite……scents/smells?…vanilla, baking breadtypes of music and/or bands?…rock and roll, easy listening, heavy metal. Allison Kraus, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, 80's Bandsauthors?…Janet Evanovich and Debbie Macomber, but I have most of their books alreadyanimals?…horsesplaces to shop?…target and kmart, chez cassuelleseason?…fall in minnesota, winter in Floridayarn/fabric/paper/other craft supplies?…i love sock yarn and lace yarncandies or goodies? i'm trying to avoid snacking8. Do you have any wish lists? amazon9. Are you allergic to anything? nope10. Do you have any pets? What are they? two black gerbils named itchy and scratchy11. Please include anything else you would like your secret pal to know about you- anything that would be helpful in finding you little gifts that you will really enjoy. In addition to my blogspot journal I also have a space on myspace http://myspace.com/i_am_willis

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

I received a package from my One Skein Secret Pal today. It was truly awesome! She knows I love wrestling and included a little pillow with a picture of her son in a Mexican wrestling mask. Very cute! She also included some beautiful cotton sock yarn in the bright colors that I love, as well as some DPN tips. Now all I have to do is get the socks started! Thank you OSSP!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

I'm so excited! My lace yarn finally arrived. It is beautiful JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk. I bought it in the color Ladyslipper, which is a lovely pink. The cone is an incredible 5,040 yards. WOW!!! That's enough to make approximately 5-6 shawls. I think I'm going to practice doing lace scarves out of it for the Think Pink Challenge. The lady I bought the yarn from had it listed on eBay but she has now started her own on-line site. A lot of the girls on the knittyboard have bought yarn from her and she is a lovely person to deal with.Her website is: http://www.sarahsyarns.com

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

I'm putting it in writing here that my goal for July is to finish all my WIP's by the end of the month before I cast anything else on. This is going to be hard because I'm itching to do some lace. Here is my WIP list:1. Mini-stole (actually just finished it).2. First socks.3. Mixed texture scarf.4. Felted clutch.5. Jeweled tank top.

The scarf should be easy to finish by this weekend. I'm having a lot of fun with it. My One Skein SP sent me some cool Pandora yarn which I'm mixing up with some ribbon yarn and eyelash. I actually am thinking about going to Chez Casuelle this weekend and getting some more in teal to make a scarf for a girlfriend in Minnesota who has a birthday the same week as me.

I'm expecting a delivery of some lovely Zephyr lace weight yarn in Ladyslipper any day now.

I'll try and post some pictures this weekend. I have two knitted groups this weekend so I should be able to get a lot accomplished.

I was able to mail off my One Skein SP package last week I hope she likes what I got her.

I attend my Saturday morning knitting group at Barnes and Nobles. Sometimes this can be a very good thing. Yesterday was one of those times. They had some books on sale 50% off. The book Celebrity Scarves has the scarf in it I wanted to do using the yarn my One Skein Secret Pal provided me last month. It is the purple Pandora skein. The other skein is one I purchased to complement the secret pal skein.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

I continued to get frustrated on my lace shawl. I truly believe that it was beyond my current capabilities. I have decided to try an easier pattern that just has one pattern that you keep repeating and practice on some sock yarn before I go back to trying it on the finer lace yarn. In the mean time, I will continue to work on my other two projects. My tank top and sock are going okay so far. I guess I won't be completing my goal for the World Cup Challenge, but that's okay.

Monday, June 12, 2006

I've been trying to do a project for the World Cup knit along. I chose to do my first lace project. I have been having problems with the pattern stitch not working out to the correct number of stitches when I get to the end of the row. I have tried ripping out the row, but I have difficulty recovering my stitches. I'm using a really fine Alpaca lace yarn so I keep losing the stitches. I think I finally solved the problem. I was reading up on the Knittyboard about using a lifeline. I will try doing it at the beginning of my pattern and see if it works if I have to frog.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

I'll admit it. I'm addicted to Chez Casuelle. I've been there twice this week. The first time I was a good girl and bought a hank of Malabrigo for my SP plus some needles and a lace shawl pattern for myself. I was feeling up the Suri Lace Alpaca and wishing I could get it last weekend, but I was trying to stick to my budget. So I left the store with the purchases I needed not what I wanted.

Well, yesterday was payday and I have been feeling sick with a respiratory infection so to console myself I went back and got two skeins of the Suri Lace in Gypsy Rose, along with a skein of some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino. I feel much better now (at least about buying the yarn). I still have my yucky infection. I'm on house arrest the rest of the weekend, so I'm hoping to continue working on my first pair of socks.

Oh, did I mention, I'm also a sock yarn addict. I'm now up to 5 skeins.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

I made a cell phone cozy from the Stitch 'n Bitch book. One of the girls at work keeps dropping her razr phone so I made a cozy for it to buffer it when she drops it out of her purse. She was happy to model it for a picture. Thanks, Maria!

Monday, May 22, 2006

I got some great bargains on yarn this week thanks to Sip and Knit's yarn sale and Hancock's fabric. Here are my latest acquisitions. The purple yarn is some Peruvian cotton/angora that I am going to make into a shell. The green is going to be used for a cardigan and the Bolero balls for some more felted clutch and of course I had to buy some more sock yarn. I should be keeping busy for awhile.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

I finally successfully complete a clutch from the One Skein book. My first attempt didn't felt correctly because the yarn I used didn't have a high enough content of wool. My latest effort used Landscape yarn and worked well. I have some more yarn to try - Bolero. I'm enjoying this book immensely. I'm trying to decide what else I want to make from it. My current project is almost done as well. I am making a cell phone cozy from Stitch and Bitch. I will post a picture as soon as it is completed as well as my latest stash procurements. Major stash additions due to some good sales at Sip and Knit and Hancock Fabrics.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Yesterday I had the pleasure of volunteering to work at a Derby Day event at the stables I volunteer at. The past couple of weeks I had been frantically knitting flowers so I could decorate my hat. I managed to finish attaching the last flower about two hours before I had to be there. The horse I picked to win didn't even place. I guess I'd better stick to horse care duties and knitting, instead of picking Derby winners.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

I finally managed to make three of the sachets from One Skein and they turned out well. I used the technique using two circular needles as explained in Socks Soar on Circular Needles. I found the instructions easy to understand. For my next project, I am knitting flowers to put on a hatband. We are having a Kentucky Derby party next weekend as a fundraiser and we are supposed to decorate our hats. I learned how to knit the flowers this week at one of my knitting groups and they go very quickly so I shouldn't have any problems.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

I'm very excited! The last couple of days I have started working on doing the sachets from One Skein. I decided to experiment and use the two circular needle technique explained in Socks Soar on Circular Needles. The amazing thing is I GET IT! It only took me two tries to get it. Usually, when I'm trying something new I have to rip it out at least 5 or 6 times. I wanted to try this technique on the sachets before I tackle a pair of socks. I think I'll be ready for the first pair of socks after the sachets. I'll post pictures shortly.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

I'm finally starting to catch up on editing photos of the projects that I have finished this year. Last night I finally finished up the baby afghan I have been working on for the last month. It's my first time doing a basketweave pattern, first time making a baby afghan. It looks pretty good, I can see some mistakes, but all in all I'm happy. This picture is in progress, but it was almost complete at that time.

This next project is my first knitted project for the year and the first project other than a scarf that I made from chenille. I got the pattern off the Lion Brand site. Very easy to do. I made it for a co-worker to wear for one of our fundraiser cocktail events. I ended up having to take the picture on my wicker chair because it wasn't showing up very well otherwise. I also took one with myself modeling. Dig the t-shirt!

Monday, March 27, 2006

You would think winter in Florida would be warm and sunny? Well, you got the sunny part right. Yesterday it was in the 40's overnight. The hearty Minnesota I am, I decided it's a sunny day, let's go to the beach. I ended up sitting under an umbrella with my jeans, barn boots, jacket, sweater and hat working on my knitting. It really was a lovely day, just a little cool and windy.

I've only been knitting again for a few months and sometimes I get frustrated because I'm a lot slower at knitting than crocheting. I have been working diligently on a baby afghan now for about a month now and I can't help thinking if I had crocheted it I would have finished it by now. I must admit this is my first project using circular needles so that's probably why I'm slow too.